Hello everybody! Guess what?! A new chapter! And it's been only 4 days since the last one so double awesome! ^_^ And as you'll soon notice, this one's a heck of a lot shorter than the real monster of a chapter I posted last time. Anyway, here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy! In this chapter, the other four founding Titans arrive back to the tower in time to find that a very unpleasant surprise has been set up for them to come home to in the time between Beast Boy's own arrival back home and their arrival. And soon after this discovery is made, the dots are connected to unveil and even more horrid revelation for the four founders, particularly for the two 'Birds' of the Titans. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so!

A/N: Just before we get started, I shall remind you all once more that I do not own Teen Titans. Now; onward with the fic people!

Chapter 10:

An Unwelcome Surprise

Bushido couldn't get the wide smile off of his face. Quite frankly, he was surprised he actually had it on his face at all. "So this is what it's like to have fun," the teenage samurai warrior thought to himself. At that particular moment, he was in the midst of none other than reading through a sizeable collection of manga books. For at least an hour after Kilowatt's departure that morning, the young samurai warrior had trained in the gym. After that, he had then spent the next few hours dedicatedly working on his efforts to research and find out where Tengu was in his personal quest to find the terrible demon and somehow get justice for what had happened to his mom, only stopping once for lunch.

Then, at around dinner time, he'd finally managed to force himself to put away all his supplies involved in his work on his personal case. At this rate, he definitely wasn't going to make any further progress then he'd already made over the last few times he'd worked on the case. And besides, he knew that neither Kilowatt, nor his mother, would approve of him wasting the entire day and night on work. But it wasn't until he'd finished his dinner that he'd finally managed to find a means with which to entertain himself that didn't involve training or working on his Tengu case. By sheer luck, Beast Boy had managed to leave a large pile of books from his manga collection. To be more specific, the changeling had managed to leave every volume he owned so far of the Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and Fairy Tail franchises in the common room. Realizing how the stories had been created in Japan and how he himself had never really had the chance before to read any manga or watch any anime himself, he had decided that Beast Boy probably wouldn't mind if he read the books in his collection for at least today, if not more. And so, he had started with the first Naruto volume, and was even now still hard at work in reading through the entire Naruto series.

"And I must admit," he thought to himself, "I can actually quite see the appeal in this story; and I'm a samurai." In fact, as he was quite happy to note, he had just now finished reading what he now knew for a fact was definitely his all-time favorite chapter in the series so far; Chapter 437, Confession. "Thank Kami Hinata finally confessed to him," he thought to himself. "Boy, from the way Naruto's reacting right now, Pain is so dead."

He heard the doors to the common room open, and he reflexively turned his head in their direction, his hands just as instinctively dropping the book and grabbing onto the hilt of his sword. "Who's there!?"

Nobody answered, and from his current position, neither did Bushido see anyone. After what felt like an eternity to the alerted teenage samurai, Bushido finally relaxed. "Oh, probably nothing," he said to himself. He let go of his sword, chuckling in a self-deprecating manner at his apparent bout of paranoia. "Man," he whispered, "I'm even more tensed up and out of touch with having fun than I thought." He chuckled again. "I really need to loosen up more. Heck, I should have started having more fun months, maybe even years, ago."

Turning his head back to where he'd dropped the book he'd been reading, Bushido picked the volume back up and resumed his reading of chapter 438, eager to see just how the battle that he knew was sure to unfold after Pain's severely wounding Hinata would go down. For the next few minutes, without a single sound coming up to interrupt his focus, Bushido found himself once again absorbed into the story, and cheering the eponymous protagonist on as he proceeded to whup Pain's ass in first his six-tailed form, then seven-tailed, and then eight-tailed. "Oh boy, things are definitely getting serious now," he thought to himself, a wide smile on his face. "This is getting so awesome!"

He heard what sounded like something heavy and metallic being lifted up from behind him, along with what sounded like a massive clattering, and he tensed up in both alarm and confusion. Before he even had a chance to turn his head, he felt something hard pound him on the back of his head, and within seconds, he blacked out, and was unconscious before he even lost his grip on the book, let alone hit the floor.

Beast Boy stood before the unconscious Bushido, spinning the large frying pan he'd just knocked out the young samurai with in his hand counterclockwise. Except it wasn't 100% Beast Boy. Rather, it was the Beast controlling the changeling's body without yet allowing its full true form to surface, and only its yellow cat-like eyes currently visible to indicate its presence. "One obstacle out of the way," said the Beast in its distinctive deep raspy voice. He looked down at the downed Bushido. "Time to get to work." He grabbed the unconscious samurai by the ankles and dragged him across the floor through the doors leading out of the common room.

. . . . .

"Thanks for the assist guys. Star and I really needed it."

Cyborg chuckled. "Happy to have helped you out buddy." He flexed his left arm proudly. "I certainly ain't gonna let no asshat street maggots screw around with my sistahs."

"Flattering to know," said Raven in such a deadpan tone that absolutely no one could tell whether or not she was joking.

"Indeed it is friend Raven," said Starfire in her usual happy tone, clearly either oblivious to the tone Raven had used, or choosing to believe that she was serious. Her eyes then took on a slight saddened look. "I will admit though," said the Tamaranean. "It was a pity Beast Boy wasn't able to show up."

"Hey don't worry Star," said Robin. "I'm sure if he hadn't been anywhere near as tired as Raven says he was by the time she and him got your message, he'd have come swooping in right alongside Raven."

"I can certainly see that happening," Raven droned.

"Damn straight you can," said Cyborg. He chuckled.

"Something funny Cyborg?" Robin asked.

"Not really," Cyborg said in a half casual and half teasing tone, a cheeky grin on his face. Truth was, unknown to Robin, the half robot teenage hero had placed a bug in his communicator that had allowed him to overhear everything the Boy Wonder had told Starfire about the plan that had been enacted over the course of the previous day to get Beast Boy and Raven to pair up together. And he was quite pleased.

"Whatever you're thinking," said Raven, "I'm sure you won't be feeling nearly as happy about it once Robin and Beast Boy learn about how you're officially no longer single."

Cyborg's eyes widened, and he came to an abrupt stop in his walking. The other three Titans present also stopped walking.

Robin seemed likewise caught off guard by Raven's statement, as did Starfire. "What was that?" Robin asked.

"Nothing," said Cyborg meekly.

Raven rolled her eyes at Cyborg's weak defense, and looked over at Robin and Starfire, an almost comically deadpan look on her face "Oh nothing," she said. "Just the fact that, apparently, things went quite well today between Cyborg and his new friend Ms. Simms, and that the two of them will be hanging out together without the kids this Saturday, and they are basically dating now." A small smirk came on her face. "And before you ask where I got that information, Cyborg told me himself when we happened to bump into each other on the way to helping you out."

"You weren't supposed to tell Robin about that!" Cyborg yelled.

"Yeah well, consider it poetic justice."

"For what?!"

"One word; stankball."

Cyborg slumped his shoulders. "You've gotta be kidding! It's been three years since that one time! Give me a break!"

"So," said Robin. "You've officially got yourself a girlfriend now huh?"

Cyborg's heart dropped, and he mentally groaned. He turned his head to face Robin, a slight grimace on his face now. "I'll never hear the end of it now will I?"

"No you will not." Robin grinned. "But not until A: Beast Boy is made aware of this and B: you and Sarah have finished your date this coming Saturday." Cyborg's heart only sank lower upon hearing how the torture to come would now only be prolonged further.

Starfire giggled, and placed her hands on Robin's shoulders from behind. "Come friends! We must get back home and tell Beast Boy immediately!"

"Star," said Raven. "Are you not aware of how Beast Boy is likely asleep, and was ready to drop when I left him at the tower?"

Starfire's face fell. "Oh yes," said the Tamaranean. "I forgot."

Robin placed his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "It's alright Star," said the Boy Wonder. "We can tell him tomorrow." He looked over at Raven and Cyborg. "But even so, we'd best be getting back to the tower. The sooner we all get home and get some shut eye, the better. As for the others; they should all be capable of handling their respective night plans without us helping."

"Copy that," said Cyborg. He turned around and started walking away. "I'll be going back to where I left the T-Car now.

Robin nodded his head, and then looked over at Raven. "What about you?"

Raven looked up to the sky, and then back at the Titans' fearless leader. "I'll fly." She took to the air and started slowly levitating back the way she'd come.

No sooner had Raven left his sight range and he'd heard the T-Car start up, Robin turned to face Starfire, smile on his face. "So," said the Boy Wonder. "Shall we resume our ride home?"

. . . . .

When the four teens arrived home, at 9:00 sharp, they couldn't have felt more relieved to have finally returned to the Tower. In fact, they even went so far as to leave the R-Cycle and T-Car parked right outside on the island with their alarms still on and set to maximum volume. They were that tired. But at the same time, they were also happy to be home, and to have had such an enjoyable day.

As the four teens made their way up towards the front door, they all allowed themselves to relax, clearly anticipating their warm beds awaiting them. But as tired as they all were, Robin and Starfire were still able to link arms and walk side by side even as Cyborg and Raven managed to start outpacing them by a good couple feet or two. They were that happy.

Raven was the first to reach the door, and she even let a small yawn escape her lips as she reached towards the keypad designed for entering in the code. "I daresay it's high time for a good night's sleep," she thought to herself as she started pressing on the first of the buttons.

But then the elevator doors suddenly opened before Raven had even pressed the fourth button needed, and she stepped back in shock. The other three Titans were also surprised at the elevator doors unexpectedly opened, and they reared back in shock as well.

The door opened up completely, and out stepped none other than Bushido. At the sight of the young samurai, Cyborg very noticeably relaxed. "Oh hey there Bushido. Nice to see you're here. How is everything?" The other three Titans, however, noticed the very angry look on Bushido's face, how ominously tensed up his body was, his clenched fists, and the angry and resolute way he was moving, and remained very much on guard.

Bushido came to a stop inches away from Robin, his face clearly showing how close he was to flat out exploding in anger. "WHAT'S IT GONNA TAKE FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO KEEP THAT MONSTER UNDER CONTROL?!"

Robin reared back, understandably stunned by how Bushido had just now leaned his head right up in his face and shouted at him like that. Then he managed to regain his voice. "Monster?" Robin asked. "What are you talking about?"

Bushido growled. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about! That green incredible hulk werewolf monstrosity, that's what!"

"What?!" Raven yelled. She knew very well exactly what Bushido was referring to.

"Well thank God someone knows what I'm referring to right now!" Bushido growled, turning his head to glare at the sorceress.

Cyborg glared at Bushido, and Starfire looked as if one half of her was still too stunned to speak while the other half was nervous and uncertain what to do. Robin, still somewhat dazed, managed to say, "Wha . . . what did he do?"

Bushido snapped his head to face Robin once more. "What did he do?!" the teenage samurai asked. "What did he do?!"

. . . . .

"This is what he did!"

The four founding Titans gaped in shock at what Bushido was showing, 100% speechless, white-faced, wide-eyed, and jaws gaping. They absolutely could not think of any words to say to convey the shock and horror of what they were now seeing.

They were currently standing in front of the main entrance to the common room; or more accurately, the entrance to what was left of the common room. To call it a mess would have been the understatement of the eon. The entire room looked as if 50 tornadoes with giant swords and battle axes sticking out at every inch had been unceremoniously jammed into the area, had busted the entire room apart, and then allowed it to be put back together in such a haphazard way that even a neanderthal could have done a better job at fixing it, only to then be double destroyed immediately afterward by twice as many earthquakes and repaired after that in an even worse fashion.

Apart from the windows and ceiling, there was not a single inch or object within the room that wasn't damaged in some way or other. The floor and carpet was riddled helter-skelter with slashes and claw marks. A mountain of stuffing and four wooden legs were all that remained of the sofa. The walls were set in a horrific web of cracks and what looked like impact craters the size of large fists. The screens of every single one of the super computers had been emphatically shattered and the key boards had been violently disconnected and smashed into pieces. The cabinets had all had their doors ripped out, and the contents had all been thrown out and lay across the floor, with all the breakable ones shattered beyond repair. A tumbleweed of tiny pieces of ripped up paper was all that remained of the calendar. The refrigerator had been ripped out from its position and smashed to bits, and all the food was scattered all across the chaos that remained of the common room. Everything else in the room was likewise in a horrific state of messiness and disrepair. Not even the Valentine's Day decorations had been spared from the terrible wrath of the monster that had apparently rampaged through the common room. But out of all of them, the impossible to forget piñata-like decoration designed in the likeness of a pair of mating Ishtarian cloud serpents appeared to be the most luckless. Clearly, from the way that it had been so utterly ripped up and destroyed that it wasn't even recognizable until all the other decorations apart from it had been accounted for, the Beast had torn into it with a vengeance.

For a brief moment, Cyborg stepped forward, seemingly in a daze over just how horridly damaged and messed up the common room had been rendered. Then he felt something snap and crack under his left foot. He looked down, instinctively lifting his foot at the same time. His eyes widened again at the sight that lay below him.

"Yo!" Cyborg yelled, yanking up the object he'd just unwittingly stepped on. The object in question appeared to be a game station controller, but with a massive chunk of it bitten out of the middle, leaving only a small sliver of the top and side sections of the device intact. "He bit my controller!"

"How do you know it's yours?" Robin asked.

"He didn't," said Bushido. "Just a lucky guess."

Cyborg looked at the teenage samurai. "And you know this how?"

"Because I woke up in the place he stuffed the majority of everyone else's possessions," said Bushido. He rubbed the back of his head, wincing in pain. "I was minding my own business reading when he sneaked in here and knocked me out. When I woke up, I found myself in some creepy mojo holding cell type thing, and there was a crap load of possessions and that weird worm thing you guys keep as a pet locked in there with me."

"Silkie." Starfire turned her head to face Bushido. "Where is he now?"

"In your room."

Bushido gestured off towards the corridor outside the common room. "I managed to have him moved over there; albeit, after I both managed to get out of the room we were already in and then managed to shut down the lockdown mode he'd somehow managed to set your room in."

"Say what?" said Robin.

"You heard me," said Bushido. He folded his arms across his chest. "He set every room in the tower apart from the common room on emergency lockdown. And as you can see," he gestured at the overall area around him, "he chose to let the common room and everything he deemed not worthy of storing into a safe haven be fair game."

"I can see that," said Raven, still feeling somewhat numb at the sight of the damage that had been done to the common room.

"Yeah no kidding," said Cyborg, who was now glaring at a large pile of DVD cases that had been snapped in half and the glass that remained of all the discs that had been inside them. In fact, now that he thought about it . . . "You Bushido. Just how many of us have personal possessions that he's now destroyed?"

"Well to be honest," said Bushido. "After very thoroughly looking through the tower," he winced, clearly on the verge of saying something that he was sure Cyborg would not like hearing. "I hate to tell you this but, out of every Titan present, you were the only one whose personal belongings he didn't seem to bother trying to store away in a safe spot before he rampaged."

Cyborg dropped the damaged controller, a half annoyed and half angry look on his face. "So you're saying that he made sure to store everyone else's things in a place where they'd be safe, yet dismissed my stuff as unimportant?"

"Everything that was still in this room yes," Bushido responded.

Cyborg face palmed, growling angrily. "Good God man." He lowered his hand, sighing in half anger and half exhaustion. "Good grief, what the heck is the matter with him?"

"I was hoping I could ask you guys the same," Bushido commented dryly.

Robin held up his hands to the sides. "Everyone, let's just try to calm down; and maybe we could see if we can view the security footage."

"Good luck with that," said Bushido. He pointed over at the damaged super computers. "As you can see, the computers around here are in no position to help us."

"He left the TV untouched," said Robin. He walked on over to the area nearby the bottom of the TV where a computer-like device was located. This device, thankfully, was undamaged. "And this computer we have hear allows us to use it as a computer as well as a television." He activated the TV-based computer, and from there accessed security footage. Bushido and the three founders present alongside Robin hurriedly gathered around behind him to view the footage with him.

The footage Robin chose began at the moment Beast Boy, in great horned owl form, arrived at the outside of the tower. As the five teen heroes watched Beast Boy walk revert back to human form and then walk tiredly over to the front door, Starfire noticed that there appeared to be no sound. "Can you turn up the volume?"

"Oh sorry," said Robin. He deactivated the mute; just in time for when the Beast Boy on the screen reached the front door and prepared himself to enter in the access code.

"High time I got back here," they heard Beast Boy say in a clearly tired tone. Then about a minute later, Beast Boy suddenly reared back, his eyes widened, as if he'd heard something. But just what he'd heard, if anything, was not something that the other Titans could hear.

Bushido raised his eyebrow. "What the heck . . .?"

"Shush," hissed Raven.

"Wha . . . why are you awake!?"

"Why's who awake?" Bushido asked.

"The Beast," Raven responded. "He must have heard it speak to him."

"What are you . . .?" they then heard Beast Boy. They turned their heads back to the screen just in time to see the changeling, without warning, abruptly slump over, his arms dangling down with the tips of his fingers just barely touching the ground. The Titans watching all leaned over to get a closer look, all of them clearly alarmed and concerned.

"What's going on?" Bushido asked. "What's happening?"

"Keep watching," said Raven, her voice indicating that she had a bad feeling what was about to happen. Robin noticed this, but chose to keep silent for the moment.

Then Beast Boy very slowly straightened back up to full upright position, but in a very disturbingly robotic fashion, and then his eyes opened . . . except now they weren't truly his eyes. They were the cat-like amber yellow eyes of the Beast.

Bushido's own eyes widened at the sight of this. "Woah."

"Shush," hissed Robin and Raven simultaneously.

"It is time," said Beast Boy, but in a disturbingly deep and raspy gravelly voice. As the five assembled Titans continued to watch, the Beast Boy on the screen, still moving in a very robotic fashion, entered in the code and walked into the elevator.

"See if we can find him on the other cameras after that," said Raven.

Robin complied, and he accessed the common room camera. For the next few minutes, the five teens watched the next few events unfold on screen. It started with simply watching Bushido reading the manga books and enjoying himself, then briefly get his attention attracted by the main doors opening. However, what Bushido only managed to see now by watching the security footage, was a green house cat quietly crawling into the room as if stalking prey. As the five teens continued to watch, the green cat reverted back to Beast Boy after Bushido had turned his head back to focus on the book once more, tiptoed over to the kitchen before coming to a stop directly behind Bushido; at which point he'd grabbed onto the handle of a frying pan, very noisily drawn it up into the air, and right as Bushido had just managed to tense up in surprise and alarm, very emphatically slam the teenage samurai on the back of the head with the bottom of the pan. Bushido winced at the sight of the attack, and so did the other four Titans. "That had to have hurt," said Cyborg.

"Oh it most certainly did," said Bushido.

"One obstacle out of the way," spoke the voice of the Beast. Beast Boy's head lowered down to directly face the downed teenage samurai. "Time to get to work," said the Beast. As the Titans continued to watch, the Beast Boy on the screen grabbed Bushido by the ankles and dragged him out of the common room.

Robin hurriedly activated all the security camera footage at once. Thus the five teens watching were able to watch every minute of the events that unfolded from Beast Boy dragging the unconscious Bushido over to none other than the safety chamber they'd designed for Raven two years prior and leaving him in there, to him proceeding to carefully move every personal belonging within the common room that didn't belong to Cyborg from the common room to whatever room he believed they belonged in ranging from a bedroom to the safety chamber. He even went so far as to apparently telepathically convince Silkie into going into the safety chamber. Then, they watched the Beast controlled Beast Boy return to the common room after sorting everything out and set every room in the tower apart from the common room onto emergency lockdown mode. Then Beast Boy's body came to a stop in the very center of the common room, took a deep breath, and exhaled. "And now," spoke Beast Boy in the voice of the Beast. "I shall finally unleash my pent up rage from the previous night." Beast Boy barred his teeth, his yellow eyes now dangerously narrowed. "And sometime later," he then snarled, "I shall find and punish the unworthy scum that has stolen my host's rightful mate!"

In a flash, Beast Boy explosively took on the complete form of the Beast; which then roared, and lunged over at the sofa. And thus, the five teens watched in stunned shock as the entire rampage that they'd only just witnessed the aftermath of unfolded before their very eyes on the security camera screen. As they watched, even Raven couldn't help but wince as the entire nightmarish spectacle unfolded. Cyborg whistled at one point, and shook his head side to side. "Dang," he said to himself. "He must have been really pissed off to get this extreme."

At one point, the Beast began to climb up a wall towards the ceiling, and appeared to somehow remain above the floor, snarling and roaring the entire time. Robin's eyes narrowed as he watched this part of the show. "What the heck was he doing up so high?"

"Um friends," said Starfire. The other four Titans looked at Starfire, who was looking up and pointing towards the ceiling. "What is that?"

The other four teens looked up, and saw the result of the Beast's apparent time up on the ceiling. Viciously carved onto the ceiling were what appeared to be a mass string of very mystical and unearthly looking runes. Raven's eyes widened seconds after seeing these runes. She recognized them. "Those . . . those are Azarathian runes." She lowered her head, quite clearly stunned at this unexpected turn of events. "How on Earth did he know what any of them meant?"

"Can you translate?"

Raven nodded, but then looked over at Bushido out of the corner of her eyes, her facial expression now indicating that she wasn't entirely comfortable with doing so in front of the teenage samurai.

Robin caught on. "Hey Bushido," said the Boy Wonder. "Can you look around the tower and see if you can find Beast Boy?"

"Um," said Bushido. He thought to himself. "Sure, I'll go see if I can find him."

"Try not to hurt him too bad if you find him," said Cyborg. "It wasn't his fault all this happened. That thing you just saw was controlling him."

"I'll try my best," said Bushido. "But I'm not promising anything."

The teenage samurai left the common room and made his way deep within the undamaged parts of the tower. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg all looked over at Raven, who looked back up at the runes clawed onto the ceiling. She narrowed her eyes, concentrating intently on the message that the Beast had sliced upon the ceiling. "Hello," Raven said, reading the message aloud. "By the time you read this, I will be gone. As of my completion of this message and the other events that have led up to and will immediately follow it, I shall depart to the wooded wilderness beyond and unleash the rest of my fury there. And later, once I have unleashed all the fury I have allowed to build up inside me since last night for my host's benefit, I shall later journey to find, punish, and potentially even destroy the foul rival that has dared to interfere in my host's hard work."

At the sound of all this, Robin's masked eyes widened. It had taken only seconds for him to realize what this meant, for there was only one scenario that would have possibly warranted what was now happening, not to mention the words he'd just heard Raven read. "Oh no," he thought to himself. He looked out the window in the direction of the forest. "No, no, no, no," he thought to himself. He gritted his teeth. "This is bad," he thought to himself. "Very bad, very, very, bad."

"But enough about that," Raven read, continuing the message. "I have something to say to you. My host and I thought you were smarter than this. How dare you let yourself be so easily fooled by that pretentious vermin's putrid lies? How dare you willingly banish your intelligence and better judgment in favor of being swayed by the tasteless words of this false-mouthed lying insect? How dare you so happily accept the utter rubbish that this slimy mongrel has offered you when your true destined mate has already worked so hard for you and you yourself already knew that this vile pretender couldn't have possibly been responsible for the overtures you've so willingly chosen to believe he set up?"

Robin felt his heart plummet, for the words he was now hearing were only confirming the suspicion he'd started to develop. "No, no, no," he thought to himself. Starfire and Cyborg looked intently at their fearless leader, clearly unnerved by how unsettled, nervous, and on edge he was now acting.

"I thought you were better than this," Raven continued to read. "I thought you cared about us. I thought you were our friend." The sorceress gulped, clearly unnerved by what the Beast was saying, yet at the same time still uncertain as to what she had done to warrant this scathing tirade. Then she continued to read, "Yesterday, you busted a very important part of my host. In return, I have, this very evening, busted your home. And in the future, regardless of what you may or may not feel for the unworthy pretender that has somehow enchanted you into being brainless to believe that he is your destined mate when even the lowliest of worms could tell that such a thing would be impossible, I shall hunt down this undeserving rival and make sure he renounces his claim and never goes near you, or anything else of my host's territory, ever again. As of that moment yesterday, you and that filthy spawn of maggots have made a powerful enemy; Raven; Breaker . . . of Hearts."

Robin hung his head. He now had every bit of confirmation he needed. "Crap," he thought to himself. "This was not supposed to happen."

The other Titans present, meanwhile, were much more focused on the message itself. "Geez," said Cyborg. "What did you do?"

Raven turned around to face Cyborg, finally lowering her head away from looking up at the message she'd just finished reading. "How in Azar am I supposed to know?" she asked.

"Well clearly," said Starfire, "you've done something to incite the wrath of Beast Boy's inner darkness. But now the question is, what is it?"

"I know what happened."

Cyborg and the two girls turned their heads to face Robin. "And clearly, it was neither something Raven was even directly aware of, nor exactly what the Beast appears to have thought it was." The boy wonder looked over at the sorceress. "Raven," said the Titans' fearless leader. "What happened last night after you left the tower?"

Raven raised her eyebrow, briefly confused. Then she thought to herself. "Are you certain it's ok to talk about . . ."

"It's fine," said Cyborg. "Star and I know about that secret admirer business."

"How'd you find out about that!?"

Cyborg winced, clearly not at all having enjoyed getting that question shouted at him by all three of his present fellow founders. He grimaced half sheepishly and half nervously. "Bug in your communicator," he then said to Robin. Cyborg winced again at the sight of the almost murderous look of rage on the Boy Wonder's face. "Sorry."

"Well never mind that," said Starfire. She looked over at Raven. "Please Raven, tell us what happened last night."

Raven briefly continued to glare at Cyborg. Then she sighed, and nodded her head. She looked up at her three friends. "After I left the tower," she explained, "I levitated over to the area that I was supposed to meet my apparent secret admirer at." She hung her head. "At somewhere around 8:50 or so, some civilian who happened to be out walking nearby came into the area and found me there." She looked up at her friends. "I'd actually met him before five years ago at that party Blackfire took us to, and we both thought it would be a good idea to talk and reacquaint while I was waiting for my secret admirer to show up." Starfire and Cyborg listened intently. Robin also listened intently, but his face was now clearly showing a grimace.

"We talked for a while, and I completely lost track of time until I eventually realized that we were still the only ones present in the area after what at that point definitely felt like a long while. At that point, at least according to Todd. . ."

The other Titans raised their eyebrows, clearly confused.

"Todd Jameson," said Raven. "That was the boy's name."

The other three Titans thought to themselves. Then Starfire and Cyborg nodded and grunted in acceptance of the information. Robin, however, briefly remained tensed up and thinking. "That name," he thought to himself. "It sounds familiar for some reason . . . but why?" Then he shook his head and grumbled to clear his thoughts. "You were saying?"

"It was 10:00 at that point," said Raven. She hung her head. "And my secret admirer still hadn't shown up." She looked back up at her friends. "Thankfully," she continued. "Todd was able to convince me that I didn't need to give up hope and to let him make a second attempt at a later date. And after we said our goodbyes and I told him how I could work to set up a later friendly meeting at some point in the future, I returned to the tower and went to bed so that I'd be well rested and prepared for today's zoo trip."

"Is that all?" Robin asked.

Raven nodded her head. "Yes."

Robin groaned, face palmed, and sighed. "This is bad," he said out loud.

"What's bad?" Cyborg asked.

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

Robin sighed, and looked up at his Azarathian sister figure. "Forgive me for saying this Raven, but I was only half honest with you yesterday." He hung his head, sighing in the process. "I know exactly who your secret admirer is."

Raven's eyes widened. "Who is it?" she asked reflexively. Then her eyes narrowed. "And more importantly, how do you know?"

"Because I helped him pick out the gifts and set up the whole business in the first place." Robin looked back up at Raven. "It's Beast Boy."

For a brief moment, Raven was stunned. Then she thought to herself. "That . . . actually does make sense," she thought to herself. She looked back at Robin. "Well in that case," she then said. "Where was he last night? Why didn't he ever show up at the rendezvous point?"

Robin winced, and pointed up at the ceiling. "Call me presumptuous, but I do believe you just read the answer to that question not too long ago."

Starfire and Cyborg's eyes widened upon hearing this, clearly having managed to put two and two together. Raven, ironically, took a couple seconds longer to connect the dots, and then her own eyes widened with shock and horror when she finally realized just what had happened. "Oh no," she said.

Robin nodded his head. "I can't say anything for sure," he admitted. "But judging from what that message says, he must have arrived in the area at some point and caught sight of you chumming around with this Todd person. Depending on just what you were talking about or doing at whatever time he saw you two, I'm sure just about anyone would have jumped to the wrong conclusions." He hung his head. "And I guess he must have been to overwhelmed and emotionally compromised from what he did manage to gather to make his presence known or likewise stick around."

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," Raven whimpered. She placed her hands on her face and shook her head side to side. "He must have thought I mistook Todd for being my secret admirer. Oh no, this wasn't supposed to happen, this wasn't supposed to happen. Why me? Why me? Why me?"

Cyborg placed a hand on the sorceress's shoulder. "Hey, it's ok. It's not your fault. You couldn't have possibly known that Beast Boy would arrive and find you and Todd talking at the rendezvous point and assume the worst. . ."

"But I should have," Raven snapped. She groaned, and looked up towards the ceiling with a pained look on her face. "By Azar, I should never have talked with Todd at all last night. Or at the very least I should have at least sent him gently on his way and asked him if we could talk at a later time and then sent him away." She hung her head. "Oh why, oh why, oh why. . ."

"Well never mind that," said Robin. "We can worry about setting the record straight later. Right now, we need to find . . ."

"I couldn't find him."

The four founding Titans turned their heads in time to see Bushido standing by the main entrance to the common room. The samurai shook his head. "I searched everywhere," said the young warrior. "No sign of him."

"No need to worry about that," Robin said begrudgingly. "We know where he is."

"Where?" Bushido asked, his hands instinctively flying to the hilt of his sword.

"In the forest." Robin sighed. "And right now still in a frenzied rage over a horridly escalating misunderstanding." He looked over at Bushido. "You stand by and be ready to sound an alert to the others in case we need them to drop by to help out." He looked at his three fellow founders. "For now, the four of us will . . ."

"No."

Robin's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"I said no," said Raven. She looked up at Robin, a half determined and half guilty look on her face. "I'm going after him on my own."

"Raven, I strongly advise against . . ."

"I mean it Robin." Raven hung her head, sighing in the process. "It's my fault he's gotten all bent out of shape right now. I should have been more considerate of the possibility of him showing up at an inopportune moment before I accepted Todd's offer to talk and spend time with him at the rendezvous point while waiting. It's my fault things looked bad enough at the time of his arrival for him to take it the wrong way when it wasn't what it looked like."

The sorceress lifted her head. "None of this drama would have unfolded just now if I'd been more careful with the timing last night. It's my fault all this happened, and this metaphorical blood is on my hands alone. I should be the one to set things right. And besides, I'm the only who can calm the Beast down externally anyway, and it will be easier to do all that without you guys or anything else around to distract me or agitate him further." She nodded his head. "I'm going out there to calm him down on my own. And that is final."

Raven looked back up at her friends, drawing out her communicator in the process. "If things head south in my efforts to calm Beast Boy down, or some other form of danger pops up to the point that I need any help, I'll send a distress call." She slipped her communicator back where she'd gotten it. "In that event, you, Star, and Cyborg can come to the forest to provide aid."

"What about me and the others?"

Raven looked over at Bushido. "For now, Robin's earlier order for you still stands. Remain on alert and on standby here at the tower. In the event that any danger that may or may not appear gets to the point that my fellow founders aren't enough to sufficiently stave it off, we'll send a distress straight to your communicator. We know that you're available and have your communicator activated and directly on your person. In the event that you receive the distress signal, see if you can find out whether or not any of the other Titans from South, East, or North can drop whatever they're up to and help out." The sorceress nodded her head, her mind made up and her heart set. "But for now, I'm going on my own." She looked Robin in the mask. "And I'm reminding you now," said the sorceress. "For your own safety as well as mine and Beast Boy's, I want all four of you to stay here at the tower unless I give the distress signal. And only come to my position in the event that I give that signal. Got that?"

Robin nodded his head, as did Starfire and Cyborg. "Understood," said Robin. He looked over at Raven. "Good luck."

Raven nodded, and looked up at the ceiling with its furiously inscribed message one more time. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. She opened her eyes. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." A pool of shadows appeared underneath the sorceress, and she sank into it before it closed, vanishing from sight. Seconds later, a larger portal appeared in the sky in front of the TV window of the tower, and Raven swooped out of the vortex and off in the direction of the forest. "Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok," she thought to herself as she hovered off to the forest to find Beast Boy and calm him out of the form of the Beast. And that was only the first thing that needed to be done. She sighed, and hung her head mid hover. "Beast Boy," she whispered to herself. "I am so sorry; for every time I've hurt you, physically or otherwise." She looked up and back towards the area she was flying towards. "Somehow or other, I am going to make things right. By Azar, I promise you that." With this whispered vow having been made, she hurriedly increased her speed in hovering towards the forest, now more determined than ever to find Beast Boy and set things right.

And just like that, new chapter done! Definitely hoping you enjoyed this and that I receive a nice respectable batch of feedback. Remember, I require at least one review for this chapter in order to allow you to be blessed with the posting of the next chapter (after it's completion anyway). Again, here's to hoping you read, enjoyed, and will leave plenty of feedback. Tata for now!

Coming up next: A now very much calmed down and non Beast-ified Beast Boy has some time in the woods to think and relax, and look back over a certain unpleasant past event from a less emotionally clouded perspective. And soon after that, he manages to be positioned just right for overhearing a very unnerving bit of information indeed regarding a certain sinister test of worth that Raven is even now unwittingly getting into position for (albeit, on her own and without the push in the right direction from 'Todd' that was originally planned). Sound exciting? I certainly hope so!